“The budget presented by Hon. Finance Minister lays down the vision of the Government, looks balanced and proposes a steady growth ahead. It is a well planned and thought out budget where the Finance Minister has tried to ease out the working environment for domestic corporations as well as foreign investors. Announcement to rationalise the capital gains regime for REITS and InvITs will benefit the commercial realty space. The hope this budget brings in for economy is the implementation of GST by 2016. We were hopeful that the government would make it applicable from this fiscal itself.

Nevertheless, implementation of GST would make business operations much easier and would help us get rid of multiple layers of indirect taxes. Also, the announcement of formation of a legislator to make a single window for multiple clearances is again something to look out for. However, whether housing projects come under its ambit is yet to be clarified. Also, reduction of Corporate Tax by 5% to 25% over the 4 years period is a welcome step. Government has also announced building 6 crores housing units under ‘Housing for All by 2022’, however there are no clear guidelines as how this goal shall be achieved.

Overall, budget looks good for the economy in general. However for the real estate sector, we are disappointed. There are also no clear guidelines on various indirect taxes this sector is forced to pay. The long pending demand of the sector which is the second largest contributor to the GDP, to be granted infrastructure status went unnoticed. We are also the largest employers after agriculture. The kind of continuous ignorance various governments have shown to this sector has hampered a lot. We expected this government will give some impetus to real estate this time, however we are left empty handed yet again.

We are hopeful that government would come out with guidelines for Smart Cities and Housing for All schemes at earliest. Also, we hope it would reconsider our demand for the infrastructure status which would sort out multiple problems this sector is facing.”